0904| Sep 04

Bring in the Clowns

Circus Vargas brings an old-school form of entertainment to Salinas.

In the middle of the dimly-lit ring, a loud voice booms over the microphone: "Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages! Welcome to America's favorite big top circus!" With a gaggle of clowns, flying ...

What music artist’s work should be considered cruel and unusual punishment?

Asked at Hot Topic in Monterey.

Follow-up: What is the most obscene thing you would do onstage for a million dollars? ENNA LEMMON | Assistant Manager | Scotts Valley A: Britney Spears. Her voice is so obnoxious and she’s not even ...

Public Citizen for Sep 04, 2008

Public Citizen

9|6 SAT FREE FUN AT HARTNELL | SALINAS—Join Hartnell Superintendent/President Phoebe K. Helm at a family barbecue tribute to the community, including Planetarium shows, music by the Hartnell College Jazz Band and a state of ...

The Love Chronicles

DIVINE BROWN

If Amy Winehouse were remixed by the B-52’s, they might concoct something like “Bebe,” but it dances into your head courtesy of Scarborough wunderkind Slakah the Beatchild. On it, a rich assortment of brass instrumentalists ...

Squid Fry for Sep 04, 2008

WATER WOES… Was it a pipedream to think that local politicians, agencies and activists could all work together and find an alternate solution to the Monterey Peninsula’s water woes? Um– even Squid was hopeful. Quick ...

Slow and Easy

Slow Food Nation ’08 grounded its delicious vision beautifully.

One S.F. community blogger called Slow Food Nation, the anti-fast food event staged this past Labor Day weekend in San Francisco, “a place for arrogant white snobs to chastise the working class for not being ...

A Woman’s Place

Afghan women artists defy convention.

Ommolbanin Shamsia, 20, says she has been painting for as long as she can remember, as a child and refugee in Iran and later, after her family returned home to Afghanistan. She considers herself mainly ...

¡Ask A Mexican! for Sep 04, 2008

One man's take on his culture's stereotypes

Dear Mexican: I’m an illegal alien. Got here on a tourist visa and stayed for a job. My gabacho employer knows about it and doesn’t care. I don’t apologize: Ever since I can remember, the ...

Art Listings for Sep 04, 2008

OPENING THIS WEEK carl cherry center Pacific Rim Sculpture: various sculptors, artist reception 5-7pm, 9/5. Fourth and Guadalupe, Carmel. 624-7491. Gallery at 417 New paintings by Eva Nichols, artist reception 5-7pm, 9/4. 417 Cannery Row, ...

Letters to the Editor for Sep 04, 2008

DOING THE DIRTY WORK Kera Abraham’s article on Deputy City Manager Charlene Wiseman’s resignation [“Agent Change,” Aug. 21-27] gave us startling insight into Ms. Wiseman’s behind-the-scenes job. When was it decided to hire “a change ...

Brezsny's Astrology

Free Will Astrology

Aries (March 21-April 19): “Like an ox-cart driver in monsoon season or the skipper of a grounded ship, one must sometimes go forward by going back,” wrote novelist John Barth in The Friday Book. Consider ...

Speaking In Numbers

The Weekly Tally

0 The number of white sharks the Aquarium plans to exhibit for several years after the most recent youngster (who arrived last week) outgrows the tank, due to a planned renovation of the aquarium’s Outer ...

Man on Wire

Daredevil Worshipping: Man on Wire re-creates a jaw-dropping high-wire exploit.

On August 7, 1974, as the Watergate scandal reached its height– that is, Nixon resigned the next day– a young Frenchman reached a more literal height. Philippe Petit, together with a band of accomplices, snuck ...

From Russia With Love

Real-life spy speaks at annual Author’s Dinner in Seaside.

Tinseltown has espionage all wrong. The cold, detached personas of Bond and Bourne simply do not fit the profile of real-life former American spy in Russia, Michael Ramsdell. Within five minutes of our conversation, the ...

Fire Away

Four funny military veterans lauch punchlines on the Peninsula.

The G.I. Comedy Co., which includes a carousing troupe of ex-Marines and a Navy vet named Jason Resler (who prefers to call himself “seaman”), are taking siege of Monterey Live in the name of patriotic ...

Top Seeds

Gary Ibsen and Dagma Lacey see off their signature TomatoFest with the flavor locals have come to expect.

For the decidedly epic event, Monterey Marriott-3 Flags’ Willi Franz has crafted a caravan of scarlet corn-crusted green zebra heirloom tomato sliders with pepper-griddled citrus soft-shelled blue crab and caricia aioli. Talk about a mouthful. ...

Oh! Mighty Engine

NEIL HALSTEAD

The twilight-saturated folk-pop of Neil Halstead is a pleasure to listen to, even if, like soy products, his music diminishes manhood and makes dudes feel twee. The jaunty yet melancholy title track, in which the ...

California Drillin’

Central Coast lawmakers reconsider offshore oil exploration.

Like the postcard-quality bluffs of Big Sur, the political resolve against new oil drilling off the coast of California is beginning to erode. Oil derricks won’t bob on the horizon anytime soon: Most state waters ...

Greater Depth

A reporter learns what it takes to scuba beneath the sea.

Sharks, he says, are the least of our concerns. There are lots more likely ways to die while scuba diving. If you ascend to the surface too fast, for example, your lungs could burst. (The ...

Storybook Success

An East of Eden Writers Conference attendee returns to speak as a blossoming novelist.

At the East of Eden Writers Conference in 2004, Terri Thayer recalls looking with awe at the “real” writers populating the Steinbeck Center that weekend. A quilter for more than 20 years, Thayer had put ...

Sun Worshipper

P.G. Mayor envisions solar panels on city buildings, schools.

First water, now sun: Pacific Grove Mayor Dan Cort is pulling out all the stops to turn his city into a self-sustaining community. On Aug. 20 Cort got the City Council’s nod to design a ...

Quick hits on previously reported news

Updates

THE GREEN STANDARD… Back in March we reported that Foothill Partners, the developers behind the green Uptown Monterey Shopping Center (aka the new Trader Joe’s shopping center) at 570 Munras Ave. in Monterey, were in ...

College

Low Grade: Slow-motion frat comedy, College, hazes its audience.

Compared to last year’s Superbad, sophomore director Deb Hagan’s coming-of-age teen sex comedy should be called Superlame. Three high school seniors– a skinny nerd, an obese kid, and a clean-cut pretty boy– visit nearby Feldmont ...

Meet Sarah Palin

Ethics and the woman who would be V.P.

The defining moment of Sarah Palin’s political career– at least up until Friday, Aug. 29– took place while she didn’t even hold elected office and occupied a place largely outside the public eye. In 2004, ...

Pushback Against Reentry Facility

County supes ask state for more time, more guarantees.

Monterey County will ask the state for more time to vet the location of a proposed reentry facility, says Supervisor Fernando Armenta, who chairs the reentry facility committee. He says the county will request a ...

The Quaker connection:

Joe Biden and Me

It was early spring in Wilmington, Del., in 1990 and I was a buck-toothed 11-year-old with the attention span of a nervous chihuahua. My fifth-grade history teacher at Wilmington Friends School, Ms. Elder, squinted through ...

Untitled

NAS

Bill O’Reilly’s attack on Nas was one of the more bizarre dust-ups of the last year. The roots of the controversy are preposterous: O’Reilly took issue with the lyrics of Nas’ “Shoot ’Em Up.” The ...

Home Page

A secret staircase, elevated courtyard and majestic oak tree bring Carmel storybook home to life.

The large English Tudor-style building on Seventh in downtown Carmel could be the cover of a storybook filled with once-upon-a-time enchantment. There are two peaked roofs; the first high with a big eight-paned window tucked ...

May Day

Cult indie rock group May Fire hits Salinas.

Cattarina Tasso is the sort of woman who haunts the minds of male indie rock fans. In Guitar Player Magazine, there’s a picture of Tasso, the guitarist and vocalist of the San Francisco indie rock ...

Food chain

Run for Cover

APOCALYPSE NOW… September has arrived. With it comes scorching summer days upon a landscape bereft of moisture, dehydrated beyond normal capacity. Our decreasing water index exacerbates the increasing stress levels presented by a societal egosystem ...